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In the foregoing message we covered the kingdom of God in its reality and in its nature. In this message we shall consider the kingdom in its expression in the divine attributes and with human virtues. We shall also see that the expression of the kingdom is in peacefulness.
The expression of the kingdom involves three matters: the divine attributes, the human virtues, and our shining as the light.
God’s attributes refer to all that belongs to God. When the things that belong to God become our experience, they become our virtues. With God there are attributes, and with us there are virtues. For example, love is an attribute of God, not a virtue. But when the love of God becomes our experience, it produces the virtue of love. Therefore, with respect to God we use the word “attributes,” but in relation to ourselves we use the word “virtues.”
First John 4:8 and 16 tell us that God is love. The divine love is the nature of God’s essence. Thus, it is an essential attribute of God. Love as the nature of God’s essence is the source of grace. When the divine love appears to us, it becomes grace. In the Gospel of John love is manifested as grace (1:14, 16-17). In the Epistle of 1 John we have the divine love as the source of grace.
The Epistle of 1 John reveals that when we are in the fellowship of the divine life, that is, in the enjoyment of the processed Triune God, this enjoyment will have a certain outcome. The outcome of the enjoyment of the processed Triune God is the divine love. When we enjoy the Triune God, this enjoyment issues in the divine love. With this divine love we spontaneously love others.
Light is the nature of God’s expression. Therefore, the divine light is an expressive attribute of God.
As love, the nature of God’s essence, is the source of grace, so light, the nature of God’s expression, is the source of truth. When the divine light shines upon us, it becomes truth. In the Gospel of John we have light manifested as truth in the Son. In 1 John we have the divine light as the source of truth. In the Son we come to the Father and experience Him as the source of truth.
First John 1:5 says, “God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.” Light is God’s expression; it is God shining. When we dwell in God, who is the shining One, we are in light. The very God in whom we dwell is light.
In 1:5 we are told that in God there is no darkness at all. As light is the nature of God in His expression, so darkness is the nature of Satan in his evil works. Thank God that He has delivered us out of the satanic darkness into the divine light (Acts 26:18; 1 Pet. 2:9). The divine light is the divine life in the Son operating in us. This light shines in the darkness within us, and the darkness cannot overcome it (John 1:4-5). When we follow this light, we shall by no means walk in darkness.
Holiness is one of the main attributes of our God. The word “holy” not only means sanctified, separated, but also distinct, different, from everything that is common. Only God is distinct, different in His nature from all things. Hence, He is holy; holiness is the distinct quality of His nature, as one of His attributes.
First Peter 1:15 and 16 say, “According to the Holy One who called you, you yourselves also become holy in all your manner of life; because it is written, You shall be holy, because I am holy.” The Holy One is the Triune God — the choosing Father, the redeeming Son, and the sanctifying Spirit (1 Pet. 1:1-2). The Father has regenerated His elect, imparting His holy nature into them (1 Pet. 1:3); the Son has redeemed them with His blood from the vain manner of life (1 Pet. 1:18-19); and the Spirit has sanctified them according to the Father’s holy nature, separating them from everything that does not fit in with God’s holy nature so that they, by the holy nature of the Father, may become holy in all manner of life, even as holy as God Himself is.
The way God makes us holy is to impart Himself, the Holy One, into us so that our whole being may be permeated and saturated with His holy nature. For us to be holy, therefore, is to partake of God’s nature (2 Pet. 1:4) and to have our whole being permeated with God Himself. This makes our being holy, like God Himself is in His nature.
Another attribute of God is righteousness. God is righteous as well as holy. Whereas holiness is related to God’s inward nature, righteousness is related to God’s outward acts, ways, actions, and activities. Everything God does is righteousness. Hence, the righteousness of God is what God is in His action with respect to justice and righteousness. God is just and right. Whatever God is in His justice and righteousness constitutes His righteousness.
“If you have known that He is righteous, you know also that everyone who practices righteousness has been begotten of Him” (1 John 2:29). The word “righteous” here refers to the righteous God in 1 John 1:9 and to Jesus Christ the Righteous in 2:1. God is righteous in the blood of Jesus to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, and our Lord Jesus is the only righteous Man among all men. His righteous act (Rom. 5:18) on the cross fulfilled the righteous requirement of the righteous God for us and all sinners.
The divine love, the divine light, the divine holiness, and the divine righteousness are the main factors of the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments portray God as being a God of love and light and as being holy and righteous. Love, light, holiness, and righteousness, God’s attributes, are the characteristics of the picture of God portrayed in the Ten Commandments. The expression of the kingdom of God is in these divine attributes.
The kingdom of God has its expression not only in the divine attributes but also with human virtues, in particular with the virtues of righteousness, meekness, mercy, and purity.
In Matthew 5:6 the Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.” “Righteousness” here refers to being right in our behavior. This righteousness is related to what we are inwardly. This is indicated by the fact that we are told to hunger and thirst for righteousness so that we may be satisfied.
The righteousness in 5:6 is actually Christ Himself. It is the surpassing righteousness (v. 20), the righteousness on the highest plane, that can be attained only by Christ. Because He is the One who produces this highest righteousness, we need to seek Him. To hunger and thirst for righteousness is actually to hunger and thirst for Christ Himself. If we seek righteousness by hungering and thirsting for Christ, we shall be satisfied. We shall receive what we are seeking.
In Matthew 5:10 the Lord again speaks of righteousness. “Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” The whole world lies in the evil one (1 John 5:19) and is filled with unrighteousness. Every aspect of the world is unrighteous. Therefore, we need to pay a price for the righteousness we are seeking for the kingdom of the heavens. If we hunger and thirst for righteousness, we shall be persecuted for the sake of righteousness.
Matthew 5:10 tells us that those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness are blessed, “for theirs is the kingdom of the heavens.” If we seek righteousness at a cost, suffering persecution for it, the kingdom of the heavens becomes ours. We are in its reality now, and we shall be rewarded with its manifestation in the coming age.
In Matthew 5:20 the Lord Jesus speaks of the surpassing righteousness we need to enter into the kingdom of the heavens. “I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpass that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.” In this verse righteousness does not refer to the objective righteousness, which is the Christ we receive when we believe in Him that we may be justified before God (1 Cor. 1:30; Rom. 3:26). It refers to the subjective righteousness, which is the indwelling Christ lived out of us as our righteousness that we may live in the reality of the kingdom today and enter its manifestation in the future. This subjective righteousness is not obtained merely by fulfilling the old law, but by completing the old law through the fulfillment of the new law of the kingdom of the heavens, the law given by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 5. This righteousness of the kingdom people, according to the new law of the kingdom, surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees according to the old law. It is impossible for our natural life to gain this surpassing righteousness; it can be produced only by a higher life, the resurrection life of Christ. This righteousness, which is likened to the wedding garment (Matt. 22:11-12), qualifies us to participate in the wedding of the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-8) and to inherit the kingdom of the heavens in its manifestation, that is, to enter into the kingdom of the heavens in the future.
To enter into the kingdom of God requires regeneration as a new beginning of our life (John 3:3, 5), but to enter into the kingdom of the heavens demands surpassing righteousness in our living after regeneration. To enter into the kingdom of the heavens means to live in its reality today and to participate in its manifestation in the future.
Matthew 5:5 says, “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.” To be meek is not simply to be gentle, humble, and submissive. Meekness is related to something inward, to what we are in our being. To be meek means not to resist the world’s opposition but to suffer it willingly. To be meek means not to fight or resist. If we are meek, willing to suffer the world’s opposition in this age, we shall inherit the earth in the coming age, as revealed in Hebrews 2:5-8 and Luke 19:17, 19.
The New Testament tells us that we do not fight against flesh and blood but against the Devil, the enemy of God, and his angels, the evil powers in the air. Although we must fight against the Devil, we should not fight against people, not even those who oppose us. Toward all people, including the adversaries and opposers, we must be meek. While we are being meek toward people, we must fight against the powers of darkness.
In Matthew 5:7 the Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” To be righteous is to give one what he deserves, but to be merciful is to give someone better than what he deserves. For the kingdom of the heavens we need to be not only righteous but also merciful. If we are merciful to others, the Lord will grant us mercy (2 Tim. 1:16, 18), especially at His judgment seat (James 2:12-13).
In Matthew 5:7 there is the promise that those who are merciful shall receive mercy. If we judge our brothers without mercy today, we shall not receive mercy at the judgment seat. But if we have mercy on our brothers, the Lord will have mercy on us at His judgment seat. Therefore, although we should be strict in dealing with ourselves, we should be very merciful in dealing with others. This is not an outward matter; it is a matter related to our inward being.
In Matthew 5:8 the Lord Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” To be righteous is to deal with ourselves, to be merciful is to deal with others, and to be pure in heart is to deal with God. Toward ourselves we must be strict and allow no excuses. Toward others we should be merciful, giving them more than they deserve. Toward God we must be pure in heart, seeking nothing besides Him. The reward for being pure in heart is to see God. God is our reward. No reward is greater than God Himself. We gain this reward by being righteous with ourselves, by being merciful toward others, and by being pure in heart toward God.
To be pure in heart is to be single in purpose, to have the single goal of accomplishing God’s will for God’s glory (1 Cor. 10:31). This is for the kingdom of the heavens. Our spirit is the organ to receive Christ (John 1:12; 3:6), whereas our heart is the ground where Christ as the seed of life grows (Matt. 13:19). For the kingdom of the heavens we need to be poor in spirit, empty in our spirit, that we may receive Christ. We also need to be pure in heart, single in our heart, that Christ may grow in us without frustration. If we are pure in heart in seeking God, we shall see God. Seeing God is a reward to the pure in heart. This blessing is both for today and for the coming age.
Matthew 5:9 says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” Satan, the rebellious one, is the instigator of all rebellion. For the kingdom of the heavens, under its heavenly ruling, we must be peacemakers with all men (Heb. 12:14). Instead of fighting with others, we should pursue peace with all men. This means that we should endeavor to keep a peaceful situation with everybody, living in peace with others.
If we are peacemakers, we shall be called the sons of God. The sons of the Devil make trouble, but the sons of God make peace. As the Son of God, the Lord Jesus made peace with God and man. Now, as the sons of God, we should follow Him to make peace.
Our Father is the God of peace (Rom. 15:33; 16:20), who has a peaceful life with a peaceful nature. As those born of Him, if we would be peacemakers, we must conduct ourselves in the divine life and according to the divine nature. Thus, we shall express the Father’s life and nature, and we shall be called sons of God.
